Yakuza fans in the west have had a painful few last years, as Sega has continued to release more and more games in Japan, but they have had to sit on the sidelines, waiting for localizations that never came, as Sega apparently completely lost interest in bringing the franchise out of Japan any more.
That changed today. At their PlayStation Experience keynote, Sony confirmed that their third party development team has been working with Sega, and that Yakuza 5 will indeed be launching on the PlayStation 3 in the west this coming summer. So rejoice!
That wasn’t even all for Yakuza fans, though, as Sony also confirmed that Yakuza 4 and Yakuza: Dead Souls would each be getting PSN releases as well.
After being snubbed for so long, it was so nice to see western Yakuza fans being acknowledged. Hopefully these games are successful enough that Sega can deliver on more consistent localizations going forward.